GOP Senator compares Obama to Nixon

[Political Junky]

Let's see ... Obama = Hitler, Obama = Nixon, so, Nixon = Hitler. Cons are eating their own.

The Associated Press: GOP senator says Obama showing Nixonian tendencies

GOP senator says Obama showing Nixonian tendencies
By BEN EVANS (AP) – 48 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — The third-ranking Senate Republican said Wednesday the Obama administration appears to be launching a Richard Nixon-like political strategy of making an "enemies list" of people who disagree with the president.
Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who once worked in President Nixon's administration, warned the White House that such a "street brawl" approach of attacking political opponents "can get you in a lot of trouble."
Alexander offered no evidence that Obama is developing an actual list, as Nixon famously created for his opponents. But, he said, "I have an uneasy feeling only 10 months into this new administration that we're beginning to see the symptoms of this same kind of animus developing."
"It's a mistake for the president of the United States," he said. "Let's not start calling people out and compiling an enemies list."
White House spokeswoman Gannet Tseggai responded that it's Republicans who "seem to be formulating lists of people and policies to oppose" while the president "is focused on tackling the list of critical priorities that Washington has ignored for too long."
The president "remains committed to working with Republicans to include their best ideas, even if he doesn't get their support," Tseggai said.
Alexander's criticism, which echoed weekend remarks from Karl Rove, the former adviser to President George W. Bush and a Fox News contributor, comes amid an unusual public feud between Fox News and the White House. Alexander also cited widening disputes between the administration and business groups such as the insurance industry, Wall Street banks and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Several top administration officials have sharply criticized Fox News in recent days, saying the cable television channel acts like a wing of the Republican Party and shouldn't be viewed as a legitimate news organization.
The president bypassed "Fox News Sunday" during a string of appearances on news shows recently, and Fox News officials have said the White House threatened a boycott. The White House has denied that and says it will book administration officials on Fox News shows.
The administration also has taken on the Chamber of Commerce, for example, suggesting the group is out of touch with the business community on health care, climate change and other issues.

 

[del]

works for me

 

[CrusaderFrank]

“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try. What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.” -- Helen Thomas

 

[EriktheRed]

I like how the guys at BalloonJuice put it:

So far, I can recall Obama being compared to the following figures:

Hitler
Stalin
Pol Pot
Mao
Carter
Bush
Nixon
David Duke

He forgot Neville Chamberlain, though.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Who Is the Real Barack Obama?

And this:

There’s an incorrect premising underlying all the blather about Obama “Nixon-fying” the White House, namely that Nixon somehow failed politically. Yes, Nixon ended up having to resign, yes, the Republicans did badly at the polls in 1974. But it’s worth remembering that when Nixon got into office in 1968, Republicans had held the White House for any only eight of the previous 36 years (and those eight were Eisenhower, who wasn’t much of a Republican). Between 1968 and 2008, they would hold it for 28 out of 40 years. And this isn’t just post Nixon, ergo propter Nixon reasoning: Republican political success rested largely on gains made among white southerners and non-college educated whites, two groups that Nixon explicitly targeted with the Southern strategy and the politics of class resentment (I recommend reading Steve Pearlstein Rick Perlstein’s “Nixonland” on this topic).

Nixon won, ultimately. And anyone who sees the way the press cowers before Fox News today (and cowered even more cravenly before Dubya until 2005) knows that the press lost.

It’s great that Woodward and Bernstein took Nixon down. But it was a Pyrrhic victory. If the same kind of report came out about a Republican president today, Fox would be calling the report communism and Halperin and Politico would be spinning the whole thing as great news for Republicans.

The media likes the idea that Nixonian politics were proved a failure when Nixon was driven out of office. But it’s simply not true.

None of this is to say that what the Obama administration is doing with Fox is actually Nixonian. The comparison only makes sense if you equate Beck and Hannity with Woodward and Bernstein.

But the idea that you can show something is a bad political strategy by calling it Nixonian is just silly.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Nixon mojo

 

[The Rabbi]

Wow, some spin from previous posts here.

When you get a milquetoast like Alexander saying that, you better take it seriously. He isn't given to rhetoric just for the sake of drumming up votes.

Yes, I've made the statement before that this is the most dishonest White House since Nixon, maybe worse.

 

[Oddball]

Nixon + enemies list = Obolshevik + enemies list.

Pretty straightforward and apropos comparison.

 

[EriktheRed]

Hey, wasn't the Prez supposed to be a weakling? Now all of a sudden he's a Nixon-like street-brawler. Looks like ODS-sufferers need to get their smears straight.

 

[Oddball]

Nixon wasn't a street brawler. He was a paranoid neurotic who desperately wanted to be accepted by the east coast elite.

Little Lord Obammyroy, OTOH, is acting more like a thin-skinned spoiled little child.

 

[Xenophon]

Hellan Thomas compared Obama to Nixon months ago, she a Goper also?